Early morning coincidences: Train crash and bridge collapse happen at same time

Is 2:34am the witching hour in China? In a bizarre and terrible coincidence for infrastructure, a bridge in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province collapsed at the exact same minute as two passenger trains crashing into each other in the central province of Hunan, if reports are to be believed.

The train crash, which happened in Chenzhou, Hunan, killed at least three people and injured 60. Train K9017 from provincial capital Changsha to Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and another train K9063 from Tongren, Guizhou Province, to Shenzhen collided, causing several carriages to be forced off the tracks. The media reported that the derailed cars had also knocked over some nearby houses.

According to the Associated Press:

"One train compartment has been crushed out of shape. Debris and the belongings of the passengers are scattered everywhere," a CCTV reporter said as the camera showed seats ripped from the floor and the ground littered with plastic bottles and scraps of paper.

Rescue workers wearing hardhats ran around giving police and medics instructions as they crammed into collapsed train compartments. Workers helped by cleaning up ruined walls of nearby houses and fixing power lines. Trains resumed running at 10 am on one side of the station while the other side remained blocked, leaving thousands of passengers stranded until at least midday, said China Daily.

Meanwhile, at that exact minute in Tieli City in Heilongjiang, the Xida Bridge suddenly collapsed, sending seven trucks carrying 16 people plunging into the Hulan River.

According to China Daily:

“According to an initial investigation, an overloaded truck carrying steel and building materials is blamed for the accident,” said Zhang Yang, Mayor of Tieli.

Tieli has experienced three weeks of constant downpour. The wet weather was earlier speculated as contributing to the cause of the accident.

While China Daily insisted that all 16 victims were rescued and now safe and sound, CRI reported that one person had died and four were injured. We guess we'll find out the true stats by tomorrow.

While we're interested in getting to the bottom of that, what we're even keener on is figuring out the chances of two major accidents happening in China at exactly the same time. How curious! We guess we know the exact time to stay away from infrastructure projects in this country from now on.